Although the modern clothes drying machine has greatly facilitated the task of drying clothes, the use of the drying machine either at home or in a Laundromat can still be tiring, especially for anyone having a bad back. Compared to using a washing machine, the use of a dryer requires deep bending. That is, washing machines are usually top-loaded and unloaded, requiring minimal bending of the user. In contrast, a clothes dryer is generally side-loaded and unloaded from a down-low position, requiring deep bending by the user.
A typical clothes-washing and drying scenario may involve removing the wet clothes from the washing machine, usually in clumps, since the wet clothes stick together, and tossing these clumps into the dryer. As such, for a given drying load, although there might be dozens of individual pieces of clothing, there are usually only a few wet of clumps of laundry, requiring only a few tosses down into the dryer. Moreover, since the clumps are wet and somewhat heavy as compared with dried clothes, the clumps are relatively easy literally to throw into the dryer. The loading activity may be accomplished from nearly erect positions. Very little bending is required.
Although it might seem easier, the task of removing the dried clothes from the dryer may be more tedious and tiring, especially if one has back problems. After drying, the clothes typically do not stick together anymore, so they ordinarily must be removed from the dryer one-by-one. Further, it may be preferred to remove them one-by-one anyway in order to shake and smooth them out to minimize wrinkling. Because of the down-low position of a dryer opening, therefore, the user must bend over deeply each time he or she reaches into the dryer to retrieve a dried item, then stand up to hang or lay out the dried item, then bend over again, then stand up, and repeat this action for as many times as there are individual clothes items in the dryer, a task very hard on one's back, especially with a large load of clothes in the machine.
Furthermore, using a dryer involves several other tasks that require bending over or squatting down to reach into the dryer. Oftentimes, static electricity causes one or more small items, like a stocking or handkerchief, to stick to the drum wall, sometimes on the upper wall so that it is difficult to see without stooping down and peering up into the dryer. Also, the drying process creates lint that is captured in a lint basket that must periodically be emptied by bending down to remove and replace it.
Insofar as applicant is aware, no solution has been provided to ease the tasks described above. Baskets have been provided to contain shoes to-be-dried and prevent them from tumbling around in the dryer, such as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,109,397; 5,276,979; and 5,743,025. Although perhaps useful for shoes, these patented devices would not play a useful role in the typical washing-drying scenario of loading wet clothes to-be-dried into a dryer and retrieving them after drying.